Revealed: Labour's most radical benefits shake-up

The Government's entire welfare reforms - including plans to scrap Income Support and make thousands of disabled people look for work - have been leaked to the Evening Standard.

The package due to be unveiled by Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell is the most radical for more than a generation and explicitly seeks to end the "something for nothing" culture.

Many of the ideas are based on the Freud report that was allegedly "sat upon" by Gordon Brown for months after it came out last year. Most of these have already been adopted by the Conservatives, including forced work for claimants. But it is the first time a Labour government has gone so far.

Most radically, every disabled benefit claimant will be tested to see if they can perform light work - a check that until now only applied to new claimants. Some two million long-term disability claimants will be affected.

People claiming unemployment benefits will be obliged to look for work. If they fail after a year, despite help to get a job, they will have to do four weeks of community service. If they fail again for another year, Mr Purnell will consider making them work full-time in return for their benefits payments - an idea also floated by the Conservatives.

The 96-page document, sent to Cabinet members this week, says lone parents will be expected to seek work when their youngest child turns seven.

In another radical move, swathes of the welfare-to-work system will be privatised by bringing in firms to motivate, mentor and train people to get them into work. Those who refuse to cooperate could have some benefits cut.

The package is being rushed out to bolster Labour's reforming credentials ahead of Thursday's Glasgow East byelection. It will also be seen as boosting Mr Purnell's claim to be a potential successor to Mr Brown as Labour leader.

Tory spokesman Chris Grayling said its key measures were already Conservative policies. "It is our ideas that are setting the political agenda," he said. He offered cross-party support but said Labour had left it too late and it would be down to a future Tory government to make a difference.

In a letter to Chancellor Alistair Darling, also seen by the Standard, Mr Purnell says his aim is to target groups who "have been left to drift into long-term inactivity and become detached from the Labour market".